30 BULLETIlSr 1089, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEIdTLTHRE. 



In allotting the range for natives or other small owners lar 

 community units rather than numerous small individual allotment 

 should be the rule. The topography of the country and the ad 

 vantage of handling reindeer more like cattle than sheep require 

 large range allotments for economical and efficient management 

 Allotment units should include winter, summer, and fawning range 

 It would be impracticable to make smaller subdivisions to meet th 

 requirements of owners of varying small herds, with the necessar 

 provision for seasonal grazing; such allotments would make it har< 

 to control individual herds and to prevent losses. 

 - While reindeer can be handled successfully on the range, they ar 

 not so amenable to control as are sheep. Herding must be done b; 

 men on foot aided by dogs, but open herding on large ranges to insuri 

 proper range use is the best method of handling a reindeer herd an( 

 approximates more nearly cattle grazing. As in cattle grazing 

 the maintenance of necessary control between allotments is more o: 

 a problem than with sheep, and emphasizes the need of larger graz 

 ing units as against a small checkerboard system. Aside from thii 

 the cost of running large herds will be less in proportion than ii 

 smaller ones, and will thus increase efficiency in control and econ 

 omy in production. Anticipating the filling up of the ranges t( 

 their carrying capacity, small owners, particularly the Eskimos 

 should begin promptly to organize community or cooperative herdi 

 with a ^-iew to holding the necessary grazing areas. 



OVERGRAZING. 



Overgrazing has been defined as " grazing which, when continuec 

 one or more years, reduces the forage crop or results in an undei 

 sirable change in the kind of forage." ^^ It may be general over air 

 entire range unit, caused by overstocking; or it may be merely local 

 and due to poor distribution of the stock or improper handling. In 

 Alaska, under present practice, local overgrazing often results from 

 both of these causes, and general overgrazing from overstocking does 

 not occur. 



What local overgrazing there is at present may be attributed 

 mainly to the method of handling — involving close herding (PI. 

 XIII, Fig. 2) ; to holding the herd on a relatively small piece of 

 range year after year; and in some cases close to the coast to using 

 the same range both summer and winter. This localizing of the 

 herds is largely due to the introduction of close herding by the 

 Lapps and to the fact that the average native is inclined to stay near 

 his village and the coast, where he may devote part of his time to 

 fishing or hunting seals. Many of the natives working with the 

 herds have not become essentially reindeer men, but remain, as for- 



'« Jardine, James T., and Mark Anderson, Op. cit., pp. 16-29. 



